Rotoscope:
Animals by Colin Brain is a rotoscope created with multiple clips of different animals. The turtle on the thumbnail and the title was what attracted me to this animation. I was curious to see the way he transitioned from the multiple animals, and his use of line in the piece to create the extra details of the animals moving. After watching it several times, I learned how he used the element of line to make the animals appear to be always moving. Different lines would appear in different frames, showing folds, creases, or even things moving on the animal. For example, the raccoon’s fur was always moving because it would switch between two frames with different lines. So, line assisted in creating the principal of movement in this animation. The rotoscope would have been not as entertaining if Colin Brain did not use a song in the background. So, he used the song to his advantage to keep the audience feeling happy when seeing the animals. Lastly, I chose this rotoscope because it reminded me of all the times my family went to the zoo or traveled and saw animals. The rotoscope created the mood of happiness for me, making remember all the times I spent with my family and animals.


Stop Motion:
The Maker was a fantastic stop motion animation, animated by a team of people at Zealous Creative. What attracted me to this animation was the odd characters being used. Character design is important to an animation because it is who the audience will be looking at in the whole film. If your character is boring or has no “personality”, nobody is going to want to watch your film. An element that was used in this animation was texture. In this stop motion, the props were made by individuals; all the props had a texture and because of that, made you feel as if you were in that same exact room. With all the different props coming together, it gave the principal of variety to the viewers. Not only were the props an important piece for the animation but the music was important too. The music was able to make parts of the animation more intense than others. Lastly, this relates to my life because as I got older, my mom handed me down duties that I started to need to do on my own. The rabbit creating the next rabbit is like my mom doing a duty or chore that I wouldn’t do when I was little. When the rabbit passes the book on, it is like my mom passing on that thing to me.


Claymation:
The claymation, Shaun the Sheep, is a funny animated series created by Nick Park and Richard Starzak. When I was in grade school, I used to watch these animated shorts before school. I was amazed by the fact that people spent so much time creating an animation by using clay! Similar to stop-motion animation, form was an important element in the creation of Shaun the Sheep. To make the objects 3D, you had to consider what the height, width, and length would be. This ties into the principal, proportion. An animator creating a claymation does not want to make certain background elements, characters, or even body parts bigger or smaller than they should be. They have to compare the size of everything to other objects or references to make sure that they are not bigger than they are supposed to be. Another important important to the animation would be the sound. In Shaun the Sheep, no characters really talk. In order to entertain and help the audience understand what is going on, they added in sound effects that would get the point of what is happening across.


Computerized Animation:
Broken Wand by Anne Yang and Michael Altman is an all computerized animation, featuring a grandpa and his grandson. I chose this video because of how well done the lighting and shadow was used. A principal used in the animation was light and value; it gave characters and objects a three dimensional look. Color was an element that helped show the lighting and value. The shades of colors helped give the objects and characters a three dimensional feel. The music was another important element in this because it helped expressed the characters emotions. This relates to my life because technology gets in the way of spending quality time with family members. My grandparents or other family members attempt to get my attention, but sometimes it feels impossible.


Sand Animation:
A sand animation by Kim Seung Hee, depicts a story of boyfriend trying to figure out what his girlfriend wants. I was attracted by the title of the animation inside a heart because I didn’t understand what language it was in and curious to know what it was about. The element of line was important in this animation because it is what the artist used to create all the objects and was what created the movement in the piece (arm movement, body movement, etc.). Movement was an important principle of this animation because you had to get the lines in the correct place to create the movement in the piece. Music helped portray the story better because it was easier to tell what the characters were feeling or what they were communicating with each other. I can relate this to my life not in a boyfriend, girlfriend situation but in a family member situation. Sometimes, it can be hard to tell what a family member wants. I try to please them in so many when really, the answer is much more simple than you believe it to be.


Hand-drawn Animation:
Umbra was an amazing hand-drawn animation by Malcolm Sutherland. The animation used space to its advantage. The shadows were the negative space and the white of the character was the positive space. In one scene, when the darkness was enclosing on the white character, space was effectively used because it made you feel as if the space was getting smaller and smaller. Shadow was a principal used in the animation. In Romanian, umbra even means shadow! Shadow’s were used to tell where the light was coming from towards the character and when the spaces were transitioning from light to dark. Personally, I do not think the music was that important because the story still would have made sense and be just as great as if it didn’t have the music. The music just added to the emotions and intensity being expressed. This relates to my life because I’ve had moments where I do not want people in my business (people climbing into the characters shadow) and I just want to be left alone, even though I can do the same exact thing (wakes up and is the tiny man climbing to a shadow).